Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents seized millions of dollars worth of methamphetamine hidden in a shipment that claimed to have peppers and cucumbers.
Authorities detailed that a tractor-trailer that entered from Mexico was referred for further inspection, leading a K-9 team to detect some 300 packages weighing over 1,600 pounds.
“Our CBP officers continue to use all tools and resources to safeguard our borders by preventing these harmful narcotics from reaching America’s streets,” said Carlos Rodriguez, the director of the Texas port of entry in which the incident took place.
Some smugglers tend to resort to methods of the kind to try to get illegal substances across the border. In early March, Mexican authorities stopped a trailer headed to Sonora and found 32 kilograms of fentanyl hidden among sliced cactus pads.
The 29-year-old driver was immediately identified as a suspect and arrested on the spot, approximately 400 miles south of the Mexico-U.S. border. Among the cargo he was transporting to the United States were 30 black packages containing around 275,000 fentanyl pills and two white packages of the drug in powder form, per the Associated Press.
According to the Security and Citizen Protection Ministry (SSPC), the street value of the drugs is estimated at $6.44 million.
A week later a woman attempted to enter drugs under her loose belly fat. Agents first noticed Nancy Dominguez and her companion, Hector Ruben Rojas, as they approached the pedestrian inspection building at the Paso del Norte Port of Entry in Downtown El Paso, according to a report by the nonprofit news outlet Border Report.
After being patted down, two female agents noticed Dominguez was wearing an “abnormally tight” girdle. Upon conducting a body inspection, approved by a CBP supervisor, agents found a clear plastic bag containing methamphetamine hidden under her “pannus stomach,” or belly flap.
Originally published on Latin Times
